Cory Doctorow's Blog, page 40

The economics of Walkaway

Edgeryders’ Alberto Cottica has published a detailed analysis of the economics of Walkaway, at the micro-, mezzo-, and macroscale. It’s a good, crisp analysis that really captures what I was going for.

Writers are notoriously bad at knowing what they’re doing and why, and good criticism is just as interesting for writers to read as it is for readers.

The economics in Walkaway are my attempt to nail down a bunch of half-formed ideas that have been knocking around in my own thoughts for de...

Mark Zuckerberg and his empire of oily rags

Surveillance capitalism sucks: it improves the scattershot, low-performance success-rate of untargeted advertising (well below 1 percent) and doubles or triples it (to well below 1 percent!).

But surveillance captialism is still dangerous: all those dossiers on the personal lives of whole populations can be used for blackmail, identity theft and political manipulation. As I explain in my new Locus column, Cory Doctorow: Zuck’s Empire of Oily Rags, Facebook’s secret is that they’ve found a w...

Podcast: Let’s get better at demanding better from tech

Here’s my reading (MP3) of Let’s get better at demanding better from tech, a Locus Magazine column about the need to enlist moral, ethical technologists in the fight for a better technological future. It was written before the death of EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow, whose life’s work was devoted to this proposition, and before the Google uprising over Project Maven, in which technologists killed millions in military contracts by refusing to build AI systems for the Pentagon’s drones.

MP3...

Podcast: Petard, Part 04 — CONCLUSION

Here’s the fourth and final part of my reading (MP3) of Petard (part one, part two, part three), a story from MIT Tech Review’s Twelve Tomorrows, edited by Bruce Sterling; a story inspired by, and dedicated to, Aaron Swartz — about elves, Net Neutrality, dorms and the collective action problem.

MP3

Podcast: Petard, Part 03

Here’s the third part of my reading (MP3) of Petard (part one, part two), a story from MIT Tech Review’s Twelve Tomorrows, edited by Bruce Sterling; a story inspired by, and dedicated to, Aaron Swartz — about elves, Net Neutrality, dorms and the collective action problem.

MP3

Talking Walkaway, anarchism, social justice and revolution with The Final Straw Radio

I recorded a great interview (MP3) about my novel Walkaway and how it fits into radical politics; a free, fair and open internet; the Nym Wars, parenting, and insurgency.

Talking the writers’ life with the Australia Broadcasting Company’s Green Room show

Earlier this spring, while I was on my Australia/NZ tour, I sat down with Australian author Nick Earls for his Green Room show, (MP3) to gossip, complain, and daydream about the writer’s life.

Where to find me at Phoenix Comics Fest this week

I’m heading to Phoenix Comics Fest tomorrow (going straight to the airport from my daughter’s elementary school graduation) (!), and I’ve got a busy schedule so I thought I’d produce a comprehensive list of the places you can find me in Phoenix:

Wednesday, May 23: Elevenageddon at Poisoned Pen books, 4014 N Goldwater Blvd, Scottsdale, AZ 85251, 7-8PM (“A Multi-Author Sci-Fi Event”)

Thursday, May 24:

Transhumans and Transhumanism in Fiction, North 126AB, with Emily Devenport and Sylvain Neu...

The paperback of Walkaway is out today, along with reissues of all my adult novels in matching covers!

Today marks the release of the paperback of Walkaway, along with reissues of my five other adult novels, all in matching covers designed by the incredible Will Stahle (and if ebooks are your thing, check out my fair-trade ebook store, where you can get all my audiobooks and ebooks sold on the same terms as physical editions, with no DRM and no license agreements!).

Talking education and technology with the Future Trends Forum

“Science fiction writer and cyberactivist Cory Doctorow joined the Future Trends Forum to explore possibilities for technology and education.”